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France needles Turkey over Armenian "genocide" ahead of EU decision

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  • France needles Turkey over Armenian "genocide" ahead of EU decision

    Agence France Presse
    Dec 14 2004

    France refers to Armenian massacre as "genocide" for first time


    PARIS, Dec 14 (AFP) - The French government on Tuesday used the word
    "genocide" for the first time in relation to the 1915-1917 massacre
    of Armenians during the end of the Ottoman Empire, risking further
    angering a Turkey already frustrated in its bid to join the European
    Union.

    Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told parliament that France would ask
    many questions, "notably that of the Armenian genocide," in EU-Turkey
    negotiations on the membership issue.

    Up to now, the French government had avoided the word "genocide",
    preferring the term "tragedy", although the parliament voted in 2001
    to qualify the events as a genocide.

    Turkey, which formed the nucleus of the former Ottoman Empire, has
    disputed the scale and nature of the killing of Armenians, and railed
    against the term "genocide" used by surviving Armenians and their
    descendants.

    An estimated 1.5 million Armenians are believed to have died between
    1915 and 1917 in the last years of the Ottoman empire.

    Barnier, responding to an MP's question about Turkey and its
    ambitions of joining the EU, said Tuesday: "We will ask all the
    questions -- notably that of the Armenian genocide, notably that of
    Cyprus -- all through the negotiations."

    He said the bloody events "are a wound that does not heal," and
    added: "This issue is at the very heart of the European project,
    which is based on reconciliation."
    From: Baghdasarian
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